48 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute

YouTube said Wednesday that 48 hours of video are being uploaded to the video-sharing site every minute, up from 35 hours per minute at the end of last year.

The Google-owned site, which was founded in May 2005, also said it was attracting a staggering three billion views a day, a 50-percent increase over last year.

"That's the equivalent of nearly half the world's population watching a YouTube video each day, or every US resident watching at least nine videos a day," YouTube said in a blog post.

YouTube said the footage upload rate had grown from eight hours per minute in 2007 to the current 48 hours per minute.

Google bought YouTube in 2006 for $1.65 billion. The Mountain View, California-based Internet search and advertising giant has not yet announced a profit for the site despite its massive global popularity.

YouTube has been gradually adding professional content such as full-length television shows and movies to its vast trove of amateur video offerings in a bid to attract advertisers.